11 Tips for the start of a Chingu Voyage & your team launch
Aka how to get the most out of your learning adventure
Start of the Voyage:
The first week is just for getting everyone in the Voyage, getting to know each other, and going over the prep material. For new people it can be a big transition so we take it slowly to make sure everyone has time to acclimatize and get ready.
1 — Say hi in #community-chat & Read #announcements (always read announcements)
2 — Get comfortable with the communication application we use (often slack)
3 — Write your intro in the #intros-your-story channel
4— Drop your favorite resource in the #resource-treasures channel
5 — Read the Prep doc (will be posted in #announcements in the next few days)
Tips for the Team launch:
Prelude — Show up when the teams are launched.
The first week of a team project is absolutely crucial. You want to be communicating as much as possible and build momentum as soon as you can. The faster your team can get up and running, the higher likelihood the project can be completed.
A mistake I sometimes see people make is they aren’t active in the first week and then later wonder why their team isn’t active in the 4th week. The first week is crucial.
1 — Bring energy and enthusiasm to the team with your first message
Your first message to your team should:
Transfer Excitement and/or Enthusiasm for working with your team-mates on a project.
Why?
Because we can’t help but react to signals, good or bad. If people come in excited and with enthusiasm, that signals to others that this is something worth working on and builds momentum. If people come in with neutral language, it does the opposite.
Compare:
“Hey everyone! Can’t wait to get started and excited to build something awesome with you!! 🚀 🔥 https://giphy.com/gifs/thisisgiphy-reaction-audience-l0K4m0mzkJDAIdhHW”
with
“hi”
What message do you think will build more momentum, energize others, and increase the likelihood of the project finishing? This may sound silly but team dynamics and momentum is incredibly important.
Of course, we all have different personalities and some may be more relaxed with this sort of thing. That’s completely fine, feel free to use your own style (or even copy and paste what I wrote above), but keep the above principle in mind.
2 — Understand this important reality about people and know that you have to continuously “activate” your team-mates
I know what you’re thinking: what the ?%$! does that mean?
Enter Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates and the 83rd wealthiest human on Earth, who says one of the greatest insights he’s found as an employer is what he calls the “two yous” that wrestle inside everyone.
The overarching challenge is people’s two thems, in other words think about it in this way: there are two yous inside you. There is the thoughtful you, prefrontal cortex type of thoughtful you. Then there’s the subliminal emotional you, and you’re not aware of the subliminal emotional you. There are those two yous and they’re often at odds.
The classic example would be, of course, where you did something that you didn’t want to do. You ate the cake that you didn’t want to eat.
What we’ve observed at Bridgewater on a constant basis is that the emotional subliminal them often can be in control of their more thoughtful them. That’s the battle that almost everybody all the time is doing. — Ray Dalio
To bring this to the Chingu context, the more thoughtful, prefrontal cortex you is the one who wants to reach your goals and applied to Chingu. This you also went through the various forms [*cough cough filters*] we’ve sent and signed your name to Chingu’s Accountability Pledge.
Before joining a cohort, all members have continuously asserted that they will be a dependable team-mate who will persevere regardless of the inevitable roadblocks.
Yet people still go inactive. People still eat the cake they didn’t want to eat. We all experience times when we fail to reach a goal we wanted. That’s what the two yous mean. It’s a reality we all share and you have to contend with in your own life, in Chingu teams, as well as all teams throughout your life.
How can I make this insight actionable?
Recognize this reality, empathize with your team-mates (and yourself) when these battles happen, and know that despite setbacks, if you take ownership and utilize grit, you will succeed.
2 — Expect less, Do more.
Finishing Act 1 is hard. Strangers have to come together, get to know each other and get a remote project going. Many teams will underestimate this and they won’t make it to Act 2. Don’t be that team.
Do not make the mistake of expecting your team-mates to be fully engaged (see above #2). Everyone has their own lives and unique circumstances — some people will be working 2 jobs, some people will have emergencies come up, a lot of people will get jobs.
The questions you should have going into any team project is: “How can I activate and energize my team-mates? How can I keep them activated every week?”
If everyone takes responsibility for their team getting started the team will have a good chance of getting started and finishing.
3 —Send your team-mates a Direct Message and build rapport right away
Get to know your team-mates on an individual basis. You get to meet a new friend, but also it strengthens your team and reduces the risk of dropouts.
Also, if they don’t reply after 3 days please make a ticket.
4 — Avoid asking general questions to no one in particular in your team-chat.
Talk to people specifically by using @username when asking questions. If you ask things like “What do you all want to work on?” it’s possible no one will reply. Instead ask: “Hey @username1 @username2, can you give 2 ideas of something you’d like to work on? Then we can decide together from there. :)”
5 —Utilize soft skills.
I recommend reading over these soft skills principles every day during the course of this Voyage. If you learn to use these principles in your social interactions with others, you will be much more effective.
Since Chingu started, we’ve launched around 1000 teams with thousands of tech-learners and 95% of all issues we’ve seen fall into one of two buckets.
1 — Soft skills issue-related
2 — Member inactive (which is sometimes soft skills issue-related)
